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Northern Ireland Law

Posted by, David on May 23, 2017

Risks for NI Law in the 21st Century

As we rapidly move further into the 21st Century the challenges for the legal profession in Northern Ireland are becoming ever more apparent, and also confusing as new methods of doing business present fresh problems, to be solved by the individual solicitors.

One such example being, while many solicitors and barristers have been lambasted for being slow to adopt technologies like email and online file storage, there are dangers lurking with adopting these technologies, without having properly thought them through. When you combine the new practise of emailing clients with instructions for money transfers, with the increased proclivity of international email hacking, this is a potentially fatal storm. The client perceives that he has received a genuine email from his solicitor, and unknowingly sends a money transfer to the hacker’s account.

Who is ultimately responsible, who is at fault and who loses in the long-term? These are the questions that need to be answered before we can safely take the speed and ease of use of modern technology for granted.